No plan to end search for lost plane: Abbott

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has moved to clarify comments published in the US suggesting the search for missing flight MH370 could be wound up in a week.

In an interview published by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Mr Abbott is quoted saying it was believed search operations would be completed in a week. If no wreckage was found in that time, "we stop, we regroup, we reconsider", he was reported as saying.

On watch: Able Seaman Morgan Macdonald from HMAS Perth observes markers dropped by an RNZAF plane in the search area. Photo: Reuters

On Thursday, Mr Abbott's office clarified there was no intention to end the search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, thought to be on the seabed of the Indian Ocean.

The move came after comments on social media saying there was now a deadline for the wreckage to be found in a search that has continued for more than a month after the plane disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.

The Prime Minister has said he is confident searchers are looking in the right place following the detection of electronic signals, possibly from the plane's black box, between April 5 and 8.

A spokeswoman said Mr Abbott gave the timeframe of a week so that if the search proved fruitless, authorities could reassess "how the current search area, search methods and techniques have been working".

The US media has questioned the Australian government's use of the Bluefin-21 over other underwater systems some commentators said were more suitable.

The man who led the search for aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart's plane in the Pacific Ocean has been critical of the Bluefin-21.

"I can tell you it didn't work for us," said Richard Gillespie, founder of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery.

"We had extremely frustrating aborted missions, just as we have seen in the Indian Ocean."

Mike Dean, the US Navy's deputy director for salvage and diving, said one of its Orion-towed search systems was available for use in the search if Australia requested it.